The first weekend of President Trump

The first weekend of President Trump

The time is finally here. We’ve been in a transition for a couple of months, anticipating what’s to come in the Donald Trump presidency.

Now we’re living in the beginning of it. His inauguration speech was heavily induced with populist and nationalist messages. Using sentiments that appealed to his supporters – not thanking his opponent, calling for party unity or asking for congressional support – his speech echoed those of his campaign trail by emphasizing power to poor, rural citizens.

Trump continued to condemn the current state of the country, and drove his audience wild with a message that can be condensed to one specific line: “You will never be ignored again.”

Hours after the inauguration, people noticed a dramatic change on the White House website. Pages on climate change, LGBT issues, civil rights and healthcare were replaced with pages on energy plans, foreign policy, “bringing back jobs” and backing law enforcement.

This change shows that after eight years of President Obama’s painstaking progress, his causes and concerns will be ignored by President Trump and the government once again.

Trump did keep his promise of starting on the first day. He signed an executive order late Friday to minimize the effects of the Affordable Care Act as Congress works on repealing and replacing it. There is no exact understanding yet of the type of relief this order will provide.

Among the other orders he signed on Day One was a reversal on Federal Housing Administration mortgage cuts. Just implemented days earlier by Julián Castro, former secretary of housing and urban development, the cuts would have made mortgages more affordable for middle-class home buyers as interest rates continue to rise. Both of these issues, while Trump has vowed to improve them, are now more challenging for middle-to-lower-class Americans.

Simultaneously, there was a weekend-long dispute over the actual size of Trump’s inaugural crowd. Trump claimed the media was lying about his audience size. While it isn’t new for him to do so, it came as unsettling news when Sean Spicer, the new White House press secretary, quarreled over the media misrepresenting the crowd.

He claimed, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” While this has proven to be complete malarkey, the point is that Trump and his people don’t care about trust anymore.

Even Kellyanne Conway, one of the counselors to the president, went on “Meet the Press” talking about the incident and said Spicer simply “gave alternative facts” on the matter. Chuck Todd of “Meet the Press” fired back by saying, “Alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods!”

The alarming nature of this petty, blown out situation comes from Trump and his people lying and his words becoming more powerful with each fib. With their constant dismissal of the media, his followers will refuse to listen and instead take information straight from his mouth.

Two days ago, referring to the Women’s March on Washington, Trump made a strangely agreeable tweet in his case.

Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views.

However, we should remember not to be fooled. Rather, the tweet is a face to put on for his nationalist supporters to show that he is the bigger person.

More than ever before, the president doesn’t care whether the media, liberals or even conservatives call him out on blatant contradictions. He has no shame because all he cares for is whether or not his followers are exclusively eating all his words.

With only one weekend under his belt, there is so much more he seeks to do. One of the most frightening things of the transition has been wondering how he’ll reach his “First 100 Day” goals.

Now that his presidency is here, we’ll just have to wait and see how Trump evolves until the next election.